Asian Football Confederation
October 24

Neftchi cruised into the fourth and final qualifying round of the US$3 million AFC Champions League on Wednesday after sweeping aside Al Ahli Sana’a 8-1 on aggregate in round three.

Trailing just 2-1 from the first leg in Yemen, Ahli were by no means out of contention when they took to the Fergana pitch. But any notions Kadem Khalaf’s side were harbouring about a comeback were scuttled after just six minutes when Anwar Berdiev put the home team in front

The Yemenis held out until three minutes before the interval when Ilya Kovalenko made it 2-0 on the night and 4-1 on aggregate. The 18,000 Neftchi fans were chanting Kovalenko’s name for a second time when he got the third goal 11 minutes after the restart.

Akmal Holmatov gave the Fergana faithful more to cheer about in the 74th minute and barely had the demoralised visitors come to terms with being four down when Berdiev got number five 60 seconds later.

Substitute Sergey Lebedev – who came on for Mukhtar Kurbanov with 11 minutes left to play – rubbed salt into the Ahli wounds when he made it six in second half injury time.

The AFC Champions League, which was launched in August, replaces the Asian Club Championship, the Asian Cup Winners' Cup, and the Asian Super Cup. The winning team will take home a first prize of US$500,000.

Four qualifiers from East Asia and four from the West will join eight seeded teams in the group stages in March.

---